Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1887-08-20
THE REV DIR. TALMAGE,
THE BROOKLYN DIvINEs SUNDAY
SERMON.

Before the world is converted the style OF
religious discourse will have to be converted
You might as well 20 into the modern Sedan
or Gettysburg with bows and arrows instead
OF rifles and bombshells and sparks of artil.
lery, as to expect TO conquer this world for
God by the old styles of eXhortation and SER
monolgy. Jonathan Edwards preached the
sermons most adapted to the age in which he
lived, but If those sermons were preached now
they would divide an audience into two
classes, those sound asleep and those wanting
TO go home.
Bnt there is a religious discourse of the
future-who will preach it | have no idea; in
what part of the earth it will be born | have
no idea; in which denominations of Christians
it will be delivered cannot guess That
discourse or exhortation may be born in the
country meeting house on the banks of the
st. Lawrence, or the Oregon, or the Ohio, or
the Iombigbee or the Alabama The per-
son who shall deliver it may this moment be
in cradle under the shadow of the Sierra
Nevadas, or in New England farmhouse,
or amid the rice fields of Southern Savannas.
Or this moment there may be some Young man
IN some of our theological seininaries, in tho
Junior or middle or senior class shaping that
weapon of power. Or there may be coming
some new baptism of the Holy Ghost on the
churches, so that some of us who now stand
in the watch-towers of Zion, waking to n
realization of our present inefiiciency, may
fitutu u ourselves. lHib coming NlStOuISc
may not be fifty years off. And let us pray
God that its arrival may be hastened, while |
announce to you what | think will be the
chief characteristics of that discourse or ex-
hortation when it does arrive, and | want to
make the remarks of the morning appropri-
ate and suggestive to all classes OF Christian
workers
First of all remark, that that future re-
h2ious discourse will be full of living
Christ in contradistinction TO didactic tcchni-
calities. A discourse may he full of Christ
though hardly mentioning HIS name, and
sermon may be empty Of Christ while every
sentence is repititious of His titles. The
world wants living Christ, not Christ
standing at the head of a formal system of
theology, but a Christ who means pardon and
sympathy, and coincidence, and brotherhood,
and life, and heaven. A poor mans Christ
rich mans Christ. An overworked mans
Christ. An invalid's Christ A farmers
Christ merchants Christ. An artisans
Christ An every mans Christ.
symmetrical and fine worded system of
theology is well enough for theological
classes, but it has no more business in a pul-
pit than have the technical phrases of an
anatomiSt or psychologist or a physician in
the sick room OF patient. The world wants
help, immediate and world uplifting, and it
will come through discourse i'll which
Christ shall walk right down into the immor-
filling it as full of light as is this MONDAY
armament.
That sermon or exboltation of the future
will not deal with man in the thread
bare illustrations of Jesus Christ In that
coming address there will he instances of
vicarious suffering taken right out of every
day life, for there is not Il day somebody is
not dying for Others As the physician saw
ing his diphtheritic patient by sacrificing his
own life; as the ship captain going down
with his vessel while he is getting his pas.
sengers into the life-boat; as the fire
man consuming in the burning building
while he IS taking child out
of a fourth story window: as in summer
the strong swimmer at East Hampton, or
Long Branc-3 or Cape May, or Lake George,
himself persisted trying TO rescue the drown
ing; as the newspaper boy one summer, sup
porting his mother for some years, his invalid
mother, when offered by a gentleman fifty
cents to get some especial paper, and lie got
it, and rushed up in his anxiety to deliver It,
and was crushed under the wheels of the
train. and lay on the grass with only strength
enough to say: "Oh, what will become of INV
poor sick mother now!''
VicariouS suffering. The world is full of it.
An engineer said to me on a locomotive in
Dakota I'VE men seem to be coming to
better appreciation than we used to- Did
You see that account the other day of an
engineer who, to save his passengers. stuck TO
MS place, and when he was found deal in the
locomotive, which was upside down, he was
found still smiling, his hand on the air brake!i
And as the engineer said it to me, he put his
hand on the air-brall to illustrate his mean
ing, and looked at him and Thought lyon
would be just as much of hero in the same
crisis.n
Oh, in that religious discourse of the future
there will be living illustrations taken out
from everyday life of vicarious suffering
illustrations that will bring to mind The
ghastlier sacrifice of Him who in the hiab
places of the field, on the cross, fought our
battles, and wept our griefs. and endured our
struggle, and died our death.
A German sculptor made an image of
Christ, and he asked his little child two years
old who it was, and she said "That must be
some great man." The sculptor was dis
pleased with the criticism, so he got
another block of marble. and cbiseleJ
away on it two or three years. and then he
brought in his little child -four or five years of
age, and be said to her: who do YOU think
that Isl" she said: "That must be the One who
TOOK little children in his arms and blessed
Them" Then the sculptor was satisfied. Oh.
my friends, what the world wants is not a
cold Christ, no. an intellectual Christ not a
severely magisterial Christ, but a loving
Christ, spreading out His arms of sympathy
10 press the whole world to His loving heart
But, remark again, that the religious dis.
course of the future viii be short Con'lensa-
ton IS demanded by the age in which we live
No more need Of long introductions and long
applications, and 50 many divisions to n dis
course that it may be said 10 be hydra headed.
IN other days men got all their information
from the pulpit. There were few books and
tnere were no newspapers, and there was lit
Tie travel from place to place. and people
would SIT and listen two and a half
hours to a religious discourse. AMI
'seyenteenthy" would find them fresh
ana clipper in those DAYS there was
enough time for a man 10 take AN hour to
warm himself mp 10 the subject an an hour
70 cool OH. But what was n necessity then
Is superlimty now. Congregations are full
OF knowledge from books. from rewsDapsrs
from RAPID aud continuous intercomnanica-
non, and long dispositions Of what they
Know already will not he Alluded II n rclis-
Ious teacher cannot compress what he wishes
10 say TO the people in the space Of fortv-five
minutes, better adjourn il TO som other. dav.
go me trouble is we preach audiences into n
1hriatlan frame, and then we preach them
Out Of 10. We forget that every auditor has
50 mucn capacity Of attention. and when that
Is exhausted he Is restless That accident on
the Long Island Railroad sornc wears 400
came from the fact thgt tire brakes were e,,t
OF order, and when they wanted 10 sion the
train they could not stop, and hence Tho
casualty was terrific IN an RELIGIONS dis
course we want locomotive power and pro.